Another "safe" album - 50%

Unlike a lot of the people here I am not utterly into black metal and the like, I am fond of many genres and instead of basing this review on "This is the shittiest black metal ever", I will judge it based on what it is, extreme Gothic metal. this is the last time black metal will be mentioned in this review.

Thornography, although not completely horrible, doesn't really do anything new or amazing. The sound has changed a lot since the last album of theirs I've heard (Cruelty And The beast) and it is a lot easier to digest, although it does take away the dark atmosphere and exchanges it for something more campy. But it still beats the shit out of Deathstars (Man I hate that band). Sometimes the new sound works and sometimes it is just annoying as often it does not suit the lyrics.

Dani Filth's cleaner vocals sounds good on some of the songs and is actually more inviting, like in songs such as Byronic Man, which sounds good BUT it does sound devoid of emotion, this goes for quite a few of the songs. Hence why I call it a "safe" album, it doesn't try to portray strong emotion or be innovative, which usually requires the sound to be more obscure or "not for everybody".

I've heard some people say "Well it sounds like Cradle Of Filth have learned how to play their instruments", this is true but not necessarily a good thing, as it means it has become watered down, you can still bang your head to a lot of it (and probably feel guilty in doing so) as it's not yet pop, but I really do hope COF - if they bring out anymore albums - go backwards as opposed to forwards which seems to be walking towards decadence and the fact that they do it with a smile makes me uneasy.

The lyrics on this album have gone downhill, I miss the good old darkly sexually poetic lyrics like in A Gothic Romance (Dusk And Her Embrace) which were much more impressive. Sometimes I doubt the existence of lyrics on this album, it's almost as if they are just there for the sake of it being an album as opposed to actually being a key part or artistic piece of the album.

Overall it's probably worth a download if you don't mind more "mainstream" sounding stuff, but I wouldn't buy it unless it was very very cheap. You'll likely only listen to a couple of songs more than twice, if you put them in a play list or something. If you liked Nymphetamine you'll most likely like this album. If you're a Dusk And Her Embrace fan however... you might want to check out older albums that you may not have heard yet, like Cruelty And The Beast or V Empire instead.